The outspoken jurist said in an interview with Reuters that while there is a real need for patents in some industries - like pharmaceuticals - where there is a greater need for intellectual property protection given the required investment - we may not actually need them for many other business.

"It's not clear that we really need patents in most industries," he said. Among other things, he notes that in fast-moving industries being first to market is a bigger benefit than software patent protections.

Posner recently tossed out an infringement suit that Apple had filed against Google's Motorola Mobility suit.

The judge does not blame companies for wielding software patents against rivals; they are simply taking advantage of an opportunity offered by the law. But think about the enormous amount of time and energy that is wasted, the innovative activity that is prevented, by a government policy of supporting the issuance of software patents.